Nico Ramos Flores, a Spanish and Portuguese Studies Ph.D. candidate, is writing his dissertation on Afro-Caribbean/Afro-Latino literature. Yet, Nico recently crossed into a new disciplinary field to work with Professor Greta Friedemann-Sanchez on her project, “Family Commissioners: Fostering Justice, Security and Peace in Colombian Families in the Post-Conflict Era” (COLPAZ).

The passage of legislation and the enforcement of legislation are far from one and the same. This is seen starkly in Colombia with respect to violence against women – 2017 Human Rights Initiative grantee Greta Friedemann-Sánchez is determined to find out why.

Marina Kelly is part of the inaugural Master of Human Rights cohort, and recipient of the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship funded by the US Department of State, named for career diplomat Thomas Pickering.

Professor Patrick McNamara formulated his Human Rights Initiative Grant-funded project, “From IDPs to Refugees: Forced Migration in El Salvador," to investigate the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in El Salvador. Rampant gang violence, endemic poverty, lack of a proper social safety net, and the constant risk of natural disaster threatens to drastically raise the number of internally displaced persons, which already sits in the tens of thousands.

On March 7, 2018, University of Minnesota Regents Professor Emerita Kathryn Sikkink marked the release of her new book with an inspiring presentation and conversation at the McNamara Alumni Center detailing the effectiveness of the human rights movement.

CIC is a Minneapolis-based non-profit dedicated to researching and advocating for policies and programs that improve the lives of children whose caregivers are incarcerated or facing incarceration or detention. CIC is seeking one or two student interns for part time, paid summer positions. Applicants must be current University of Minnesota students who will be enrolled in a graduate or professional program at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2018.

Professor David Crow is a visiting researcher with the Human Rights Program from the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City.

Eric Tang, the former community organizer turned professor, discussed his book Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the NYC Hyperghetto. Tang’s visit was part of the “Seeking Refuge in a Changing World” series, a collaborative project that investigates a world of people in flux.

Professor John Bessler is trying to help Cesare Beccaria – even though he’s been dead for over two hundred years.